Govt drops energy efficiency initiatives for agriculture

Friday 23rd July 2010

The government's new draft Energy Efficiency Strategy retains the 90% goal for renewable energy but strips out all reference to on-farm energy efficiency, in its rewrite of the 2007 strategy led by former Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons.

Submissions on the new strategy, released yesterday along with a new draft New Zealand Energy Strategy by Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee, are sought by Sept. 2.

While Brownlee has not set great personal store by detailed public strategy documents, the NZES draft comes days after his defeat over conservation land mining and confirms the government's commitment to placing "petroleum and mineral fuel resources" at the top of the energy development agenda, followed by renewable energy and new energy technologies.

The previous Labour-led government's NZES placed a 10-year ban on new gas or coal-fired power stations and contemplated regulation to further discourage fossil fuel use because of their contribution to climate change-inducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"Further commercialisation of petroleum and mineral fuel resources has the potential to produce a step change in economic growth for the country," says the NZES draft. The new strategy retains the "aspirational" goal of generating 90% of the country's electricity from renewable sources by 2025, from around 70% today, "as long as security of supply is maintained."

The energy efficiency strategy draft posts an "ambitious" goal for New Zealand of saving 55 Petajoules of energy from across the transport, business, and household sectors, and from consumer products, the electricity system, and the public sector, by 2015.

The vast majority, 29PJs, of savings is anticipated from the transport sector, based on improving the 2008 rate of Gigajoules per kilometres on land by 4% within the next five years.

A further 21PJs of savings are targeted in the business sector: 16PJ's from industrial energy users and another 5PJs from commercial users to achieve a targeted 14% improvement in energy intensity levels in the business sector.

A further 9.5PJs of energy used for heat and/or fuel from biomass and/or geothermal energy is sought by 2025.

A 4PJs target is set for savings from households through to 2015, coming mainly from a continued drive to insulate cold, damp New Zealand homes and install energy efficient heating.

A 10% reduction in energy use per full time staff member is targeted in the public sector, while uptake of energy efficient products will be encouraged by "judicious" extension of Minimum Energy Performance Standards to energy-hungry devices.

Unlike the 2007 document, which focused on dairy sheds and irrigation systems as "some of the most electricity-intensive parts of New Zealand farming", there is no specific reference to the agricultural sector in the latest efficiency draft. The previous Labour document carried no specific targets for the sector.

Greens co-leader Russel Norman said the new Energy Efficiency Strategy was "amusing" in that it established goals, but unlike the previous document, contained few policy actions to achieve them.

"The 2007 NZEECS was a document with real goals. They've stripped it all out and what's left is just a big bunch of waffle."

Brownlee said the previous government's strategies gave too little attention to energy affordability and security.

"If New Zealand is to make the step change needed to improve economic performance, we must be able to ensure that the electricity and fuel needs of a growing society can be and are met," he said.

Businesswire.co.nz

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